Water block for gigabyte GTX275 ??

[tatts]

I bought the above card without checking the pcb to find it is a non-reference board so normal blocks dont fit?

After a quick search i found these pictures showing the area not touching the water block but both cores touch fine (circled in green)


some of the chips are shifted slightly to the right at the end of the card, so the waterblock does not fit properly in this area. This means the full cover block is raised slightly towards the end.


After more research i found the asus dont cool this area anyway and looking even further it looks like the stock cooler doesnt touch these ??




I could double up on thermal pads for the stuff highlighted in green but I'm not too sure how much heat these components generate (although asus left them passive above). Is anyone able to tell me if doubling thermal pads will be OK in this area? The memory to the right also doesn't touch the copper block properly, but I know these do not generate much heat and can be passively cooled.

However, the GPU and other core on this card contact the copper block PERFECTLY (pics above) - its just the ram to the right and those other little chips that miss the block by about 2mm.


Will i get away with this or is there anything else i can use??

[Eddy_EK]

This is not reference PCB design sadly.
The only possibility for you to have a FC block is to mill or dremel off the problem making parts if you find it possible to fit then.

[tatts]

Originally Posted by Eddy_EK

This is not reference PCB design sadly.
The only possibility for you to have a FC block is to mill or dremel off the problem making parts if you find it possible to fit then.

Thank you for your help.

I take it you mean dremel the lip on the block?

Does it really matter about cooling the bits in the green square? (asus have theres passive on the 216 gtx260)

[PiLsY]

Yes it very much matters . Thats your pwm area which will 100% definitely and totally need cooling. Asus may have a passive heatsink on it but it gets plenty of airflow from the gpu heatsink.

How much material would you need to remove? I'd go with the dremel option. Use a metal file bit at very high rpm and go slowly. A grinding wheel will probably cause too much friction (heat) - you'd have to remove the delrin top and o-ring and could warp the base.

[Onoff312]

PWMS really do need cooling swap the cards or get sinks for them.

[tatts]

Thanks for all the inputs.

I don't think this will work unless i get messy with a dremel which is too risky for me.

I have took the easy route out, bought a 4870x2 and ordered a new block


Hope this thread is useful for others to prevent making my mistake
unofficial list of cards that will fit the block:

Yes
EVGA
XFX
Sparkle
MSI
BFG
PNY

No
Gigabyte
Asus
Palit
Gainward